Thread by @SethAbramson

This country continues to appease Trump to its ruin.

This case may have been brought—irresponsibly—by media outlets and Judicial Watch, but the GOP wanted this affidavit released to destroy the case against Trump.

And the judge is giving them their wish. cnn.com/politics/live-…

(PS) If you or I were the party whose premises had been searched in this case, the judge would have laughed in our faces at the notion that this affidavit would be released before prosecutors wanted it to be.

Politics poisons our criminal justice system—not the other way around.

(NOTE) This thread replies to the breaking news below. While DOJ will be able to seek some redactions, that it’s even having to jump through such hoops at this stage in its investigation is extraordinary—and is being done solely to appease Trump and the GOP, both of them lawless.

(NOTE2) I am happy to see—quite honestly!—that there is still optimism in the readers of this feed, who are saying that DOJ being able to seek redactions means this is a win for the DOJ.

What I am saying is that in a normal case the motion would simply have been denied. Also...

(NOTE3) ...the risk of angering the judge, who’s made clear he wants the affidavit released in some form, will likely make DOJ timid in suggesting its redactions, meaning that it may not seek all the redactions it could (after all, it wanted *none* of the affidavit released yet).

(NOTE4) I look at the case and compare it to cases that don’t involve politics—and see a chasm. Non-lawyers, I do understand, will look at this decision in a vacuum (Did the judge grant the media outlets’ demands entirely? No? Then it’s a win for DOJ). Two different perspectives.

(NOTE5) Maybe it works out. Maybe DOJ suggests redactions, the court rules they make the document incoherent—or in some way unfair to Trump—and decides that the whole thing must be kept sealed.

But *every time* we deviate from normal course of business we weaken the rule of law.

(NOTE6) The DOJ is learning how lawless those it is dealing with are. Doxxing, threats, selective leaks, political rhetoric that ignores rule of law and precedent, altered images of the judge, actual violence. DOJ must be America’s lion, now—and that means moving to indict Trump.

(NOTE7) The Trumpists must be taught that *every act of misconduct* will be met with a *greater* degree of—entirely legal and within-bounds—aggressiveness by DOJ. These lawless cretins know no other rule than the rule of power. And DOJ has plenty of power and authority to expend.